My '71 Devon Budget Resto!

[babydave]

Hello All,

Welcome to my thread about my 1971 Devon Sunlander. I've owned 'Betty' for around 14 years now and in this time I have always had her on the road whether rain or shine... she has been a real workhorse and has always got me to the places that I needed to get to whether that be a VW show or on holiday in the old girl (furthest we have been in her was Belgium on a family holiday back in 2006).

Well... back to now! I managed to pick up a boring daily driver to ferry the kids and the dog around in for the next few months so I could get on with a few jobs that needed doing...

I will try my best to update this thread as I go along and post as many pictures as I can... I will be doing most of the work myself but I have had a bit of help here and there from friends, namely my mate Chris who is a star and is always ready to help me out, of which I am very grateful!

And back to Betty... before I first got her she must of had a front change and was therefore running high indicators and even though it did didn't matter too much she just never looked quite right!

So I began the work last year when I was driving her daily and so as usual for me I had to rush it all so that I could get Betty back on the road again for the day to day!

I'm waiting for my photo's to upload to Photobucket so will update when it's ready!

Cheers for now

Dave

 

[babydave]

My plan is to get her solid and all one colour with some faded sign writing on the doors and rear hatch... and then finish off sorting out the interior, which I plan to refurbish while keeping the original character!

I don't intend to have a show-winning paint job or bus at the end as I want to get back to driving her daily and i'd worry too much about her if she was gleaming... so i'm going to go for a bit of an aged look - not rat but gently aged!

 

[andewilson]

will you be giving those high indicators a tickle whilst doing the resto?

good luck with the resto

 

[babydave]

Yep... the high indicators have gone back to where they should be!! The front end was done last year and this is kinda the second-coming so to speak! Now that my photo's have uploaded here you go!!

I didn't have the skills last year so I ended up paying someone else to do the front end welding for me... which was not too bad but looking back I would of liked to have done it myself but the guy was quick so that was a result!

Basically... the inner front valance had been going for quite a while and had been brought up several times in the MOT by my mate. He let me get away with it for a couple of years but he wasn't happy to let it get through he next one so I had to do something about it... and while i was there i thought i might aswell sort out the indicator and windscreen issues!

Using my driveway as the workshop... I prayed it wouldn't rain for the next few days and set to work!

The Inner valance was shot aswell as plenty of metal around it... which is always the case!

Moved on to the outer one and sorted out the indicators while we were at it... these were cuts from another van as you know they aren't available to buy!

So that was that and then the windscreen lip was taken care of and this is what i ended up with!

Getting there... but the fun stuff was soon to come!!

Cheers Dave

 

[babydave]

Unfortunately... my camera gave up the ghost a few times so I lost some of the pictures I took when I was doing the filler work on the front panel - sorry 'bout that!

But anyway... worried that it may well rain I made a make-shift workshop with a large tarpaulin and a few bits of rope!! Well... I was on a budget!

Looking back... I must have been mad, well that's what my neighbours thought anyway! So nice and cozy under my tarp I set to work filling and sanding and ended up looking like a bit of a ghost...

Here's a picture of me so if you see me about at shows say hi!!

Like I said I lost some photo's of the filling but here is one of the filler primer going on which turned out pretty well!

And here's the full front in primer... it's funny but this makes it seem a lot easier than it was actually doing it and the amount of time i took trying to get the swage lines and curves right but you get the idea!

So, quite quickly the old girl was starting to look like an early bay from the front - cool!!

 

[Justin & Muttley]

I love threads like this - you're doing some cracking work there!!

Thanks for posting your pics, it all looks great - are you planning on painting the van yourself too?

 

[babydave]

Thanks... Yep, i'm gonna paint it on my todd! I did it before with rattle cans and got pretty good results but i have managed to pick up a cheap compressor and spray gear so i thought... why not eh!!

This is how I got on last year with rattle cans:

And here's one of how she looked off the driveway...

 

[babydave]

After that i managed to adapt the front grille as eventhough I had an early one it wouldn't fit due to the location tabs! So i cut and trimmed the late on and ended up with this:

And a finished front end with the accessories on:

 

[babydave]

You may have spotted the new wheels that i managed to pick up cheap off a mate who was ordering a few sets at the time!!

Mmmmmmmm Nice!!

 

[babydave]

The ride height was not quite sorted in that last pic but it has come down and i levelled her out and she looks a lot better in the stance stakes now!

 

[Guest]

really great work especially as your doing it yourself, ive got a 71 moonraker in baremetal atm , this is good inspiration

 

[babydave]

Thanks Johnny... Apart from the front panel welding I have been doing it mostly by myself but with a little help from friends when the need arises!!

I feel alot more confident this year about doing the welding as i've been doing quite a bit as you will see in the pictures to come!!

Thanks for the replies... I'm hoping that they will motivate me!

Dave

 

[babydave]

Here is a picture when I tickled the ride height... I would love to go really low but I use the van to take the kids around and lug my music gear about so this is about as low as I can get away with!!

 

[babydave]

Decided tho upgrade the engine as it was a bit manky and blowing out a load of smoke!! So decided to get a top end rebuild kit - new genuine heads, forged barrels and pistons and all the associated gubbings!

This is what it looked like before:

I also ordered a set of Webber 34 ICT's with the CB performance kit to go with it... ended up staring at this for a while:

But decided to take the plunge and ripped out the old engine with help from a couple of my mates, rebuilt it and added the carbs all in one weekend... as I said at the beginning this was my daily driver so I had to get things done quickly!!

Looked a lot better for it and also now went up hills pretty well too!!

I'm not really sure whats on the bottom end of the engine as I've never stripped it down completely but it runs like it's possessed by the devil... either that or I have a heavy right foot!!!

 

[babydave]

Thought I'd share a picture of the interior... the cupboards etc are how Devon intended but the uphostery had been changed a number of times and was again looking a bit tired!

So I went down to the local Dunhelm and managed to pick up a sewing machine on the cheap and set about re-upholstering the cushions!

From this:

To this:

Looking comfy... but need to find some material that is a bit more original Devon check!!

 

[babydave]

Just thought I'd show you what enabled me to get all the parts and pay for what I did to my bay last year... I unfortunately had to sell my other pride and joy which was my lovely beetle

Here she is in all her glory... hope she is still being looked after well

And one of the inside... man I miss that bug!

And a random one from the Hop Farm!!

Anyway... enough of reminiscing - back to the bus!

 

[gninnam]

Very impressive thread dude 8)

Like the way you have tackled the various parts, very sympathetic to the old girl (take it the van is a girl...)

Will keep an eye on this thread

(Nice bug too )

 

[babydave]

Thanks mate...

Yes, she is most definitely a girl... 'Betty' is her name and I have tried to keep her as original looking as possible while updating her and making her more practical for daily use with a family! I have made changes in the past which I am not happy with so I will try and sort these out to be more faithful to the original conversion.

I am pretty much nearing Part 2 of this never-ending saga where I started to notice lots of problem areas and previous work that I was not happy with so have decided to tackle head on!!

From now on I will be coming up to date with what I am doing so updates may not come in as thick and fast but they will come

Hope you've enjoyed the ride so far

Dave

 

[veedub1975]

Hi mate, im now a member of eb
Gonna get some more pics up then ? 8)

 

[babydave]

Well done mate... it's about time :lol:

I'll be updating asap! Been alot happening!